World news in brief, 7/7

A former Syrian political prisoner with close links to Saudi Arabia was picked Saturday to lead Syria's main Western-backed opposition group, filling a post long vacant due to divisions among President Bashar Assad's opponents.

Inside Syria, government troops advanced into rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs, pushing into a heavily contested neighborhood after pummeling it with artillery that drove out opposition fighters, an activist said.

The election of Ahmad al-Jarba as the head of the Syrian National Coalition came during a meeting in Turkey in what was the second attempt in recent months by Assad's opponents to unify their ranks.

The opposition bloc is primarily composed of exiled politicians with little support among Syrians back home who are trying to survive the third summer of a conflict that has killed more than 93,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.

Al-Jarba's election suggests that the opposition is trying to unite despite its differences after Assad's forces gained ground last month in and around the strategic town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon.

South Korea

Stalled industrial park discussed

SEOUL — Delegates from North and South Korea held talks Saturday on restarting a stalled joint factory park that had been a symbol of cooperation between the bitter rivals, but there was no word on whether any significant progress had been made as discussions went into the night.

The Kaesong industrial zone, just north of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, was the centerpiece of inter-Korean projects hatched during a previous era of warming ties. But it was closed in April as tensions rose between the rivals when South Korea held military exercises with U.S. troops not far from the border. North Korea pulled its 53,000 workers out of the industrial park, and South Korea then ordered its managers to leave as well, against their wishes.

Representatives from the two sides met Saturday in the truce village of Panmunjom inside the DMZ for working-level talks.

Italy

Alleged drug broker caught in Colombia

ROME — A fugitive Italian mobster, who allegedly arranged major shipments of South American cocaine to Europe each month and was one of the world's most powerful drug brokers, has been captured in a Colombian shopping mall, authorities said Saturday.

Roberto Pannunzi "at the moment is the most important broker for cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe," Gen. Andrea De Gennaro, an Italian anti-drug customs police official, was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA.

De Gennaro described Pannunzi as being able to "move thousands of kilos of cocaine — out of every 10 shipments, eight passed through" Pannunzi's hands, De Gennaro said as Italian law enforcement officials and prosecutors rejoiced over his capture.